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Friday, January 19, 2007

Sig Ep Appoints Director of Volunteers

Letter Sent to Volunteers from Craig Templeton Appointment of Gary Huff as Director of Volunteers

January 19, 2007Dear Volunteer:

One of the five tenets of the Fraternity’s strategic plan is to build and strengthen the role of volunteers at the chapter level—equipping our volunteers with the skills, tools and abilities to manage the day-to-day affairs of their chapters and mentor their undergraduate leaders and officers. Grand President Archie Yeatts formed a special committee to formulate plans and recommendations for volunteer programming.

A central component of the committee’s recommendations includes a professional staff position dedicated to recruiting, training and retaining volunteer chapter leaders. After an exhaustive nationwide search, I am pleased to introduce Brother Gary L. Huff as our Director ofVolunteers. Gary is a former District Governor for Arkansas and Louisiana, 1991 alumnus of the University of Central Arkansas and 2004 recipient of the Distinguished Alumnus Award.

Over the holidays, Gary relocated from Little Rock, Arkansas, to Richmond, Virginia, and has been hard at work designing and planning the volunteer training programs and modules recommended by the committee. As a former District Governor, Gary brings the unique perspective—District Governors are our primary network for recruiting, organizing and maintaining the Alumni and Volunteer Corporation boards at the chapter level.

Gary has taken the committee’s recommendations, working with Director of Operations Chris Minnis and volunteers, to outline 11 training modules on topics ranging from chapter recruitment, to property management, to legal issues and risk management. With training modules in hand this spring, he will begin training trainers to deliver the programs in the field.

Gary comes to us from Philander Smith College in Little Rock where he served as Controller. He has also worked in marketing and accounting for a wireless telecommunications company, operations and accounting for a startup software development company, and led the financial operations of a privately held company as it went through a series of acquisitions. Gary is a self-described “problem solver.”

As part of his transition, he has put together a grueling travel schedule to meet and begin work with volunteers at eight of the nine Carlson Leadership Academies next month (Karen Katz, a member of the Volunteers Advisory Committee, will be covering for Gary at the CLA in Burlington, Massachusetts).

You should expect to be hearing from Gary in the coming weeks to get your perspectives on building and equipping our volunteer leadership corps.